And one of his closest colleagues early in his career was Geovanni Brackett, who worked at PLUS TV. He maintained a close personal and professional friendship with Humes over the years. Today at the family home, he told us about their early years working together - and how he had Aaron's back when it was under fire:
Geovanni Brackett
"I Came after him in the journalism because I got recruited from Plus TV. When I covered Belize City, I started to need help. So, when he had moved from Amandala, he went to join with us at Plus TV. And so, we were like a one, two punch."
"He was the on the bicycle. And so I go capture the stories. And I was doing like 12 stories on bicycle, bring it to the... we didn't even have an office. I had to create an office. And I was, if I would sometimes be at Channel 7, or Aaron would be at the computer lab. And I would just bring the camera there. And we only had like one hour for him to write, to take out the bites of the story. And I had to get the chip on 3:15 bus to reach 4:15 plus TV to finish edit for 6 o'clock news."
"And so we did that for years. And that was the ability between he and I. I had the ability to go out and he had the ability to just take it in and write it. But people who would also know me from way back know that Aaron assisted me a lot with my press releases."
"So I was sharing earlier that when I did one of the immigration scandals, there was a thick document that came out. And I only had like 12 hours before press conference to burst it. And so I gave Aaron, I said, Aaron, this is what I want you to do. And within that night, Aaron took out all the bites that I needed, the facts. When I read that in a press conference, people thought I knew every single page. But it was because he and I had a way how we communicated."
"He had an ability to read fast. And when he was under pressure, he read even more faster. And he clicked everything. He was firing all cylinders. So for me, he was there with me in my activism. He was there with me as a friend, as a schoolmate. And he was there with me professionally in the media."
Reporter
"When the Doug Singh scandal came about, would you be able to discuss that if you can?"
Geovanni Brackett
"No, I remember when that was big and Jules did the final story on it when he closed the story."
"And he's, I forget the coin words that he used, but in other words, he was saying it was the quickest shutdown. The damage from the leak had removed someone from office. But I called Doug. I was in the Dangriga hospital at the time."
"I never forgot. And I said, Doug, man, with all due respect, I have to address, I said, Aaron would never leak a private interview like that. And especially, Aaron doesn't, he doesn't have it in his ability to be evil or anything."
"Aaron was the kindest person. And I didn't allow anybody to take advantage of him, especially around me. And I said, Doug, I said, that's not Aaron. 100%. And then he said to me, he said, Geovanni, I know that he said, a second person talked to me."
"And when some people were trying to ridicule him, I went on Facebook. And I was happy the press officer for the government at that time, Dorian Pakeman, followed me and Mike Rudon. And we defended Aaron."
Later on in the news, we'll have more about one of Aaron Humes' biggest scoops - even if it was an inadvertent one - that's when a leaked interview vaporized the public career of a leading UDP personality. We'll speak with his boss at the time of his death, Hugh O'Brien.
